Hardwood killing coral

[akaza]

I recently had some contractors install hardwood in my house. They assuared me that that hardwood installation would not affect my coral reef which was in another room and the room was sealed.
Turns out they were wrong, I came back today after a 2 day hiatus and my tank was mikly white. There is some sort of chemical in my aquarium, my nitrates are exceptionally high and so are my nitrites. I changed 50 % of the water of the 50 gallons in the aquarium. The situation has not changed.
I will try to do the same tomorrow, BUT my questions are:
1. Has anyone else had the same experience?
2. What are my options?
3. Is there anyway out? Or are all my corals going to die?

 

[liveforphysics]

First, let me say it sounds like your bacteria in your tank got hammered somehow.

I you somebody to hold your corals for you while you get your tank figured out, let me know, I would be available even tonight to hold things for you.

Let me know if I can help.

 

[wrightme43]

I have heard of it happening to other people.
If your going to keep them in your tank, think about water changes, big ones, carbon, polybiomarine polyfilters, borrowing a someones extra skimmer for a week or so. Just some ideas to lower the stress.

 

[bc_slc]

I would also recommend moving EVERYTHING out of the tank if possible. If it has been 2 days, some of the corals may still be in the process of decline. Then I would do a couple large water changes a day for the next few days and run carbon as stated above.

 

[akaza]

Thanks for all the help. So far I have lost
1. 1 star fish
2. 1 clown
3. 3 damsels
4. 1 5 year old coral banded shrimp
5. 2 emerald crabs
6. a host of other critters (crabs and snails)
7. 1 sea cucumber
8. 1 leather coral
9. 1 clove polyp

There is still some life left though. I have done two large 32 gallon water changes in two days. At this point my nitrate and nitrate levels seem to be ok. Will test again tomorrow. Salinity is fine and yet to test ammonia and ph. But I have no idea what other chemicals are in the water. I also added a carbon filter and one more checmical absorbant that I got from saltwater city.

Hopefully my other coral will survive. Thanks for all the help,I willl keep this updated

 

[liveforphysics]

WOW, please, if you have things remaining alive, put them in sombodys tank to hold them. I am more than willing to host your livestock for a week or 2 untill things get sorted out.

It really a shame to just watch things die in a bath of poison when you have options to prevent further death.

 

[aquariumdebacle]

hardwoods have immune systems as well. They can stave off attacks from the oraganisms that they have evolved with (sorry to all those non-evolutionist, I don't have an answer) and defend themselves. Cedar is a prime example, it naturally wards off insects. It is not toxic in it's "hard" form but if they are "cutting" the wood within proximity of the tank the "natural" pesticides could be influencing the system. It is the airborne particulate that is the problem for your corals and over a long period of time yourself. If you cut wood for a living by all sakes wear a mask. Particulates kill! period!

 

[NaH2O]

Some sea cucumbers, when dieing, can be quite detrimental to a system. The large die-off may have been triggered by the sea cucumber, however, its hard to say whether or not it was due to the hardwood floors, IMO. Did the installation require them to spray any chemicals?

Also, do you have a skimmer going? Hang in there, and post up new water parameters when you get a chance. Sounds like you are making head way with the water changes, and carbon.

 

[Curtswearing]

You might want to contact Marc Levenson of Melevsreef.com. He is an avid hobbiest and he also owns a floor refinishing company. His email is at the bottom of his web page.

 

[akaza]

I moved some of the coral into a second tank. That said the water condition seems to be improving
1. Nitrate and nitrite content is no longer an issue
2. The water is clear no longer milky white
3. Some of the anemones are moving around.
4. The skimmer is no longer foaming to the same extent it was before. Will conduct more tests

Thanks for the offer to help but a lot of my coral are on fairly large pieces of live rock and have been so for about 4 years so its really hard to pull them off without destroying the life at the same time the rock might be contaminated and will kill someone else's coral if I were to put them onto another person's tank.
Will update with more data as the days pass right now fighting to save
1. Some large pieces of colt
2. several anemones bubble and rose
3. Clove
4. Cabbage leather
5. Closed brain
6.variuys kinds of zooanthids

 

[jsmkmavity]

the biggest concern is not the wood, its the stain and or clear finish used on the wood. the fumes can and will penetrate almost any material and can contaminate the water in your tank. i cant say this is what happened to you but i know it is very possible. just a note- flea bombs as an example can wipe out a tank. again its the fumes that do the damage! find out what type of finishing products they used. the milky water color suggests an oil based product was used.

 

[Electrokate]

One thing another person could do instead of housing your stuff in their thriving healthy tank is put it all in a cooler with a bunch of filters, heater and powerhead, and a pc light. Or if the anemones are moving then 2 coolers so they don't kill the coral. I have done this in a similar crisis as has a friend, and it worked great. Getting the coral/anemones out of the contaminated air is the issue. The people on this list really are willing to help more than you'd believe. This sort of chain reaction death spiral can also happen because of people using spray or plug in air fresheners, using pine incense, certain cleansers, cigarette smoke, etc. It all sticks to water really well, which is why skimmers work so well. As a bird owner I had to learn all of this. Hot non stick pans or self cleaning ovens kill birds, always wondered what they do to us... I figure if it tickles my throat or aggravates my asthma it's probably also bad for my animals.

If you can't move the rock out of the tank then anything you can do to increase ventilation and cover the tank for protection from dust would be great. Maybe a few days darkness isn't so bad, you could cover the system with a few blankets or sheets. I don't like plastic drop cloths because the dust settles on them and then when you remove it the drop cloth it falls off wherever gravity permits, wheras blankets usually retain the dust.

Good luck, that sounds like a nightmare. And maybe a legal case.
Kate

 

[Blazer88]

Wow man, that's horrible. I am actually doing my floors right now and haven't noticed anything negative effects at all. I hope everything works out for you!

-Rick

 

[akaza]

More testing and one more light water change all of the numbers PH , Ammonia, Phosphates, Nitrates and Nitrates mostly under control. Will continue monitoring. My next water change will be next week. Thanks to the guys at saltwater city and all of you folks. Will update this thread.